The wheels are coming off in the City of Joburg, whose council now does not have a speaker or permanent city manager.
And on the table is a threat to remove mayor Mpho Phalatse as the ANC prepares to bounce back into office thanks to the so-called “one-seat parties”.
The turmoil in the city came to a head on Monday as both sides of the council held parallel events and flung mud at one another.
On the one side is the DA with Action SA and the Patriotic Alliance. The trio have opened a case against the ANC, which they blame for the fall of the DA’s Vasco da Gama, who was removed as speaker last week through a vote of no confidence.
On the other side are the small parties in the council, who accuse the DA of “bullying” tactics and centralising power in the city while using smaller parties as “voting cows”.
The ANC, which is not directly involved in the scuffle, is believed to be banking on the small parties to vote it back into office once the DA mayor has been removed.
The troubled DA-led coalition government has not seen peace in its several failed attempts to fill the position of city manager.
As things stand, Bryne Maduka is acting in the position after the removal of Floyd Brink, who was also acting in the position.
Last week the PAC, represented by a single councillor, sponsored a motion of no confidence against Da Gama with the support of the ANC and the small parties — COPE, ATM, Al Jama-ah, UDM, GOOD, UIM, AHC and AIC.
The DA has since accused the ANC of using bribery to buy the votes of the one-seat parties and on Monday opened a criminal case at the Hillbrow police station, accompanied by the PA and Action SA.
“We want this thoroughly investigated because in SA we cannot have a situation where political parties are campaigning to say ‘we are not going to work with these people’, but they work with them simply because they have been bought, and we have heard some shocking stories of brown envelopes exchanging hands in the basement parking of the council chambers,” said the DA’s Solly Msimanga in Hillbrow on Monday.
At the same time, the one-seat parties were firing on all cylinders at the city’s administration building in Braamfontein.
The ATM’s Lubabalo Magwentshu said: “On the issue of bribery, you know, when you are in romantic relationship. If the husband is cheating and when he goes cheating he tells the wife that I am going to a work strategy planning meeting or a workshop; when it is now the wife’s turn to go for a workshop, and a legitimate one, the husband is suddenly worried that something is happening and wants to go with [her].
“This is the case here, because this is the DA style that is they have captured the other parties. It is what they did in February when it was time for the election of chairpersons, they approached Action SA to ask EFF to vote with them and say what they want in return. That is the DA style and they want to project it as everyone’s style and they never said we are bribed when we voted with them.”
The council’s chair of chairs, Colleen Makhubele of COPE, accused the DA of treating one-seat parties as “voting cows” and said this would never work.
But we are saying enough is enough; if we get the chop for doing what is right, then so be it. I did not leave business and corporate to come here and be a voting cow for the DA. I joined politics consciously and deliberately to make a difference and I am doing so very effectively as chair of chairs in this council.
— Collen Makhubele, Cope
She said the DA was using national leaders of the small parties to intimidate and threaten their councillors with disciplinary action if they do not vote with the DA.
“As councillor Colleen Makhubele, I have been intimidated and others have also been intimidated. The ACDP councillors are not here today [Monday] because they were told not to come and are being subjected to lie detector tests and being suspended. Those are the kind of intimidations coming from the DA through our party leaders.
“But we are saying enough is enough; if we get the chop for doing what is right, then so be it. I did not leave business and corporate to come here and be a voting cow for the DA. I joined politics consciously and deliberately to make a difference and I am doing so very effectively as chair of chairs in this council.”
AIC councillor Margaret Arnolds said the DA was panicking because it had dawned on them that Phalatse was the next to fall. Accusing the small parties of taking bribes was a counter to stop what is coming — the return of the ANC to power to stop the DA’s “arrogance”.
“We have confidence that we will be able to take out the mayor. We have exposed the DA, and all these letters they are writing are exposing them. Now we have to be survivors of abuse by the DA. We need to change the government of this city as soon as possible,” Arnolds said.
Phalatse accused the minority opposition bloc of fronting for the ANC, adding she is going on with her work without having sleepless nights.
“It is clear there is a desperate and co-ordinated attempt to grab power in the city without any regard for residents and their service delivery needs. Despite these political games being played I can guarantee residents we are not distracted nor will service delivery be affected,” she said.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.